By Nick Slone

Intro

The fastball is the cornerstone of any pitcher’s arsenal, often setting the tone for every at-bat. While its velocity is often the first thing people think of, understanding the nuances of how to grip, shape, and control the fastball can make a huge difference in how effective it is on the mound. By mastering these elements, pitchers can enhance their fastball’s movement, deceive batters, and ultimately dominate the strike zone. The purpose of this blog will be to explore the essential aspects of fastball shapes, grips, and cues to help pitchers maximize their fastball potential.

There are primarily three types of fastballs: the four-seam, the two-seam, and the one-seam (you could potentially bucket this into the two-seam group). These 3 fastballs can all have completely different shapes/plots based on factors like release height/side, spin axis (tilt/direction), spin efficiency, spin rate, and location of pitch. To help, we can name each fastball plot to help differentiate them, and ways to achieve these plots.

Some different types of fastball plots include: cut-ride, carry, ride-run, runners, sinkers, and then there’s “dead zone” plots

***Ride-Run***

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

***Runners***

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

***Sinkers***

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

***Dead zone***

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Basic Fastball Characteristics

**all horizontal breaks would be negative numbers for left-handed pitchers**

Cut-ride fastballs have high vertical break (VB), generally 17”+, with 5” or less horizontal break (HB).
Carry fastballs also have 17”+ VB with ~6-12 HB.
Ride-run fastballs are unique as they typically have about the same amount of VB and HB, but with both being 16”+ on both.
Runners have more HB than VB, 16”+ HB with ~6-12 VB.
Sinkers would also be 16”+ HB with 5” or less VB.
Dead zone fastballs are classified as anything with less than 15” of VB, and also less than 15” of HB. These fastballs are generally considered “flat”, or easy for hitters to hit, because they lack any sort of life with their movement qualities. Although this is mostly true, there are some outliers when it comes to dead-zone fastballs that allow them to play way better than they seem, which will be talked about more later.

Cut-ride and carry fastballs are considered fastballs with “hop” and will have a spin axis (tilt) anywhere between 12:00-1:30 for right-handed pitchers and 12:00-10:30 for left-handed pitchers.

Runners and sinkers are considered fastballs with “sink” and will have a spin axis anywhere between 1:30-3:00 for RHP and 10:30-9:00 for LHP.

Ride-run and dead zone fastballs are unique. They both will typically be right at a 1:30/10:30 axis. The difference is that typically a ride-run fastball will have 100% spin efficiency and a very high spin rate. The two players I have seen that have been able to pull this off have been high slot pronators. This could be a coincidence, but for everyone else this tilt seems to only result in dead, flat fastballs.

Advanced Fastball Characteristics

Other pieces of the puzzle to determine a fastball’s shape are gyro degree and spin efficiency. Gyro degree is measured on how centered the ball’s rotation is in relation to the direction the ball is moving. A fastball that spins perfectly out of the pitcher’s hand spinning from down to up (assuming a 12:00 tilt) to the catcher would have 0 gyro degree. As the pitcher’s release point moves to more around the side of the baseball, the gyro degree then increases. So if a perfectly backspun ball is 0 degrees, a ball thrown with the same spin as a football or bullet would be 90 degrees (negative degrees for LHP).

Spin efficiency translates to what percentage of the raw spin rate directly impacts movement from the pitch. It is on a scale of 0-100%, where 100% equals a pitch of 0 gyro degrees and 0% equals a pitch of 90 gyro degrees. You may think 45 gyro degrees would equal out to 50% efficiency, right? Well in reality it averages out to roughly 71% efficiency. Although they have a relationship, it is not a strictly linear relationship.

The point of gyro degree and spin efficiency is that they directly contribute to adding or subtracting from the vertical and horizontal break on fastballs. The closer to 100% and 0 gyro degrees a pitch is, the more likely the pitch moves in relation to the tilt of the fastball. Example: 12:00-1:30/12:00-10:30 measured tilt will have higher amounts of VB, and 1:30-3:00/10:30-9:00 will have higher amounts of HB. The more variance off of that efficiency and gyro degree will lead to changes in what’s expected of the pitch.

Seam-Shifted Wake

Seam-shifted wake is essentially extra aerodynamic force on the ball due to where the seams and smooth patch of the ball are at in space during the ball flight. This wake is primarily caused by lower spin efficiencies and higher gyro degrees on fastballs to create a new movement plot that performs differently than expectations. Most people see this effect on two-seam fastballs and sinkers, where they get larger amounts of sink and/or armside HB. In this video of a seam-shifted sinker you will see where the measured tilt out of the hand (striped line arrow) is pointing towards 1:00. Since this pitch was thrown with a two-seam grip and only had 76% spin efficiency, and a low spin rate under 2000rpms. It was set up with the one piece of smooth patch facing more towards the catcher, it allowed the effect to shift the actual tilt (solid line arrow) down on the baseball to about a 2:30 direction to help kill vertical break and add more horizontal break.

While most people only use this effect for sinkers, you are just as able to seam-shift a fastball to INCREASE vertical break. You can see a prime example in this video of a seam-shifted fastball here. In this pitch, he uses a four-seam fastball grip and also had 76% spin efficiency, but achieves a high spin rate of 2600rpms. This pitch was purposely thrown with an intent to try to add “cut” to the baseball while keeping his fingers on top of the ball. From his natural release height and tilt, this allowed him not only raise his measured tilt slightly higher at 1:15, but then seam-shifted up to create a 12:45 direction.

Create Steep Angles with VAA

VAA, or vertical approach angle, is the angle (in degrees) at which a pitch crosses home plate. Almost every single pitch thrown will come in at negative angle due to gravity and the fact the mound is elevated higher. The angle is primarily determined by pitch location height, release height, release extension, and vertical break. The MLB average VAA for four-seam fastballs is right at -5.0 degrees. The closer to 0 the more “rise” or “flatter plane” a fastball looks, and the further more negative from -5 means the ball looks “steeper” coming in. For most pitchers, their VAA may never truly matter that much unless they are able to achieve more extreme angles. VAA of -5.0-0 plays extremely well at the top of the zone, whereas the other extreme plays very well at the bottom of the zone.

Take some examples of MLB guys with fantastic “flat” fastballs: Gerrit Cole -4.3VAA, Spencer Strider -4.1VAA, Freddy Peralta -3.7VAA, Luis Castillo -3.8VAA, and Zack Wheeler -4.0VAA. These pitchers throw all of their fastballs almost exclusively at the top or above the strike zone (Castillo throws sinkers at the bottom) to get more swings and misses, weak pop flies, and set up offspeed that work below the zone.

Examples of MLB guys with some of the best “steep” fastballs: Michael King -6.5VAA, Jordan Montgomery -7.4VAA, Ranger Suarez -6.9VAA, Sandy Alcantara -6.6VAA, and Clay Holmes -7.2VAA. These guys work a little differently than the others. Their fastballs work almost exclusively in the bottom part or below the strike zone for swings and misses, inducing ground balls, and offspeed that work below the zone or horizontally off the fastball plane.

If you have the arm angle and pitch movement plots to induce more outlier VAA numbers, then take advantage of this and use it to your advantage. In the seam-shifted sinker video again, you will notice this pitch had a -7.9VAA just below the strike zone which is on the extreme “steep” end. In the other video of the seam-shifted fastball, he had a -2.9VAA at the top of the zone which is on the extreme “flat” end. Earlier I mentioned how not all dead zone fastballs are the same.

These two fastballs shown to the right were from two different pitchers but with a very similar location in the strike zone, the top pitch being top middle of the zone, the bottom pitch being top left of the zone. They also both have very similar movement plots, which qualifies both as being dead zone heaters.

There’s one big difference between them though, the VAA degree. Pitch on the bottom is pretty much an MLB average VAA with a dead zone plot, making it an average or poor pitch. Pitch on the top still has the same plot, but since they created a -3.5VAA, which is extremely elite, it makes it a great pitch.

How to Improve Your Fastball Shape

The most valuable component of fastball shapes is creating an outlier VAA to attack hitters in the zone with, whether it is with a “flat" or a “steep” shape. For most people, this will be hard to achieve due to the fact pitch release height is one of the most important factors of this angle. If you do not throw from a high or low pitch release height, then creating this angle may be impossible.

For pitchers trying to create a “flat” angle, the difference in seam orientation and wrist angle can turn this dead zone fastball into this kind of fastball. The easiest way to figure this out is by using an Edgertronic or other high-speed camera to record the pitch release and ball flight. For fastballs you are wanting higher vertical break on, you will typically want to see a four-seam orientation with spin that has all four seams working bottom to top. If you struggle having high vertical break relative to your tilt, then look at the video to see the orientation of the seams during ball flight and you will probably notice a “wobble” to the seams. This wobble will not allow the ball to carry, and you may need to adjust your grip to a different part of the seam or different finger pressure to fix. These changes are case-by-case scenarios, and generally require experimentation based on what is seen in the video.

The same experimentation goes for players trying to create a “steep” angle. Some players naturally create this angle purely due to throwing from a high release height. Others have to add more sink to their fastball to create the same effect. Here is an example of a pitcher throwing a flatter sinker, looking more like a runner. This compared to the same guy changing the release slightly to create a very steep sinker. There are three real ways to add more sink to these pitches: flat part of ball facing catcher/pitcher, flat part on top/bottom of the ball (pointed towards 12:00/6:00 while seams are spinning towards 3:00/9:00), or throwing a one-seam pitch grip to naturally induce seam-shifted wake downwards. Once again to track progress, use Trackman or Rapsodo to measure movement plots and Edge or high-speed camera to see the orientation.

Conclusion

For the majority of players who do not create these extreme angles, it does not mean you will have a bad fastball. Pitchers can get away with being around that average -5.0VAA while still having life to their ball, whether it be hop, sink, or run. The goal would become to not be in a dead zone plot while at that angle. To help your decision on which type of fastball plot you want to have, take in all the metrics of your slot, release height, gyro degree/spin efficiency, and even your arsenal. Experiment with these changes in catch play and bullpens so that you not only have a good fastball, but one you can master and dominate hitters.

Master your Fastball Shape